Zoektocht naar het ware verhaal van "bommenneef", het brein achter een aanslag op drie "foute Nederlanders" ( )

Marjolijn van Heemstra's In Search of a Name is one of those novels that's a bit of real life that has been altered somewhat to make it more "literary." The underlying (and true) story is that the author had a long-deceased relative, a Dutch resistance hero, after whom she'd promised to name her first son, should she have one. Once the author found herself pregnant, with a son, she wanted to know more about this relative. But the reality she found didn't align particularly well with the family legend, leaving her at odds with her own commitment to finding the truth, her promise about the naming of her son, and her understanding of what heroism is and isn't.

In Search of Name was a quick, engaging read, but I was conscious the entire time I read of the fact that I was reading truth/not-truth. I developed opinions about the characters—but didn't know whether those opinions would fit the individuals depicted, given the license the author admits she took. If, for example, I thought a character was being selfish, was the "real" person actually selfish or did the author make him selfish only in fiction in service to the plot or style of her novel? And why would an author choose to "make" someone, a close family member, into a more selfish person than he actually was?

The author does explain some in additional material that she chose to fictionalize the story in order to spread the narrative out more evenly over time, which makes sense, but still leaves me wondering about the reader-writer relationship created.

If you're interested in novels looking at WWII resistance or at the experiences of women during pregnancy, you may well enjoy this book, but I was never quite able to settle into it comfortably. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. ( )

It would have been so easy to believe all the old war stories, to embrace them as gospel and move forward and christen the child as promised. But when is life ever easy?

Told in a weekly countdown to the birth of her child the author compels herself to find “the proof of courage, sacrifice and allegiance.” Nothing less will validate the “Bommenneef, Cousin Bomber” the Dutch Resistance hero who is to lend his name to her child. Frans Julius Johan are three perfectly acceptable first names, but the terms of the naming have a tinge of suspicion about them. The story needs to be sussed out. She quickly discovers “there are two things you don’t find in historical documents: that which, at the time, was common knowledge, and that which no one wanted mentioned.”

18 weeks left - our author can’t do what people have been doing for seventy years - she can’t leave out the parts of the story that she doesn’t like. She begins to understand the child’s game of telephone is also played by adults and with every retelling the truth may become harder to find. It isn’t an easy or kind pregnancy, nor is the story. Following the threads leads to dead ends, complications, frustration.

14 weeks left - She posits - “you cannot understand a man without understanding his war.” The question resounds: “How long does a war last?” “Does a single life become meaningless in the light of the stars and one’s own moral Law?”

13 weeks left - the findings scream of collateral damage.

12 weeks left - a very pregnant woman with swollen legs, hormones raging, desperate to keep her story intact no matter the deficiencies and disparities. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

1 week left - “End things with the truth.”

3 days left - still no name “baby for the time being”

The day - “He has a name”.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria. Books for a copy. ( )

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

In Search of a Name by Marjolijn van Heemstra follows a pregnant woman researching her uncle’s past after World War II. The book, originally in Dutch, won several prizes and has sold the film rights.

A pregnant woman wants to call her unborn son after her great uncle, a hero of the Dutch Resistance who is known as “Bommenneef”, since he killed a traitor with a bomb. As she looks more closely at the uncle’s legend, passed down by family members, she starts to have her doubts about the history that goes with the name.

She has to finish her research, talk to witnesses, and separated truth from fiction before the baby is born.

This book is a somewhat unusual book which is more nuanced than what I thought it would be. The story of a woman who dares, has the courage, to dig into a family legend that created a hero is something to behold.

I enjoyed the timeline, counting backwards the week to the birth of the baby. I thought it was a unique way to tell a story and In Search of a Name by Marjolijn van Heemstra uses that technique very well. The premise of this book is very interesting, and I can certainly understand that in many families this is a can of worms no one wants to open.

I think that books like this, one that targets a different audience than English speakers, will do well with footnotes and annotations from the translator, or publisher. I happen to be somewhat familiar, even though certainly not intimately familiar, and far away from being an expert, of the history the author talks about. Much of the story, mood, and background was familiar to me, but I can certainly see how those who did not grow up in Holland might find it difficult to either follow or understand.

The ending of the book was a bit strange. While I know that I can never get close to understanding what women feel being pregnant, I don’t think that flying to Spain, during a non-conventional pregnancy a few weeks before you’re due is something a pregnant woman would do.

I did enjoy how the author went about constructing the story and searching her family history. In the process she discovers new friends, and new branches in the most unexpected places. Even though, in places like Holland, if you dig far enough – and it doesn’t have to be too far – I’m sure everyone is related at some point, whether it be by family or happenstance. ( )

In Search of a Name by Marjolijn van Heemstra turned out to be a much more compelling book than I expected. I don't mean to imply I had low expectations, I just had no idea how much this wonderful novel would make me think about so many aspects of life that usually go unexamined.

There is a time constraint, namely the time of a pregnancy. The story of the research and the story of the pregnancy is intimately entwined and each sheds light on the other. The content of the research, centered on an event in 1946, is yet another story. As a reader I was swept up in each story to the point where they were, as they should be, one story. Or like a tree, perhaps a family tree.

I think there are so many ways into this novel that most readers will be able to find a path that speaks to them. The only readers I would be less likely to recommend this book to would be those who read mostly genre fiction and want/need those common elements to make the story flow for them. This is not an action-filled novel and the conflicts are largely internal.

To offer some idea of the kinds of thoughts the book stirred in me, I will mention what is probably the most obvious element: what is in a story? Who decides if a story we tell about our life or our family is accurate? Who actually knows? Good or bad people or actions? Again, it depends on perspective. Stories about our families and our lives are like history, the ones doing the writing/telling are the ones deciding right and wrong, good and bad. Same events from another perspective will likely reveal a different set of heroes and villains, justice and injustice. Finally, how good are we, when not pushed to look more closely, at being somewhat realistic about our own stories?

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )